President Obama told a Hollywood fundraiser Monday night that he and congressional Democrats have passed the most progressive legislation in decades.
“We have been able to deliver the most progressive legislative agenda — one that helps working families — not just in one generation, maybe two, maybe three,” Obama said.
Obama was joined by a number of lawmakers and celebrities at an event for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) that raised $1 million.
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Obama boasts of his ‘progressive’ triumphs
Chavez’s “communes”
Tucked into forested hills in southwest Caracas, a red-brick housing complex for the poor is a testing ground for Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s latest step to build socialism in the Latin American oil producer.
The phalanx of simple five-storey apartment blocks, some still being built, anchors the “Cacique Tiuna Commune”. This is one of a network of “socialist communes” that Chavez and his supporters want to extend across the nation in a political and legislative offensive to dismantle “bourgeois” capitalism.
Not surprisingly in a country whose politics is as flammable as gasoline, the project enshrined in a package of “power to the people” laws is stoking a political firestorm.
Venezuela’s private retailers targeted as Hugo Chavez declares ‘economic war’
Cedeño’s alleged crime: selling beef for £4 a kilo, well above the regulated price of £2.58. He does not deny it – prices are marked on a white board behind the counter. “I’ve got to cover my costs. What business doesn’t? Yet eight officials came here to arrest me. It’s an abuse of power.”
Most economists attribute Venezuela’s soaring inflation to loose monetary policy, exchange controls, devaluation and anaemic domestic production, dynamics that show no sign of abating.
“The government has boxed itself in with a misguided policy mix of rampant spending and price and foreign exchange controls that has resulted in a growing output gap and galloping inflation,” said Patrick Esteruelas, of Eurasia Group political consultancy. He added that the government, unwilling to risk austerity measures in the run-up to September’s congressional elections, was deflecting blame. “It has found it highly convenient to persecute private food retailers.”
Venezuela’s authorities disagree. They say private firms are cheating customers with unjustified price rises that are driving 30% inflation, Latin America’s highest. Food prices are rising even faster, at 40%. According to Chávez, it is part of a plot by US-backed “fascist oligarchs” to destabilise his leftist experiment.
Hugo Chavez spearheads raids as food prices skyrocket
CNBC (Reuters), “Hugo Chavez Spearheads Raids as Food Prices Skyrocket”
Mountains of rotting food found at a government warehouse, soaring prices and soldiers raiding wholesalers accused of hoarding: Food supply is the latest battle in President Hugo Chavez’s socialist revolution.
Venezuelan army soldiers swept through the working class, pro-Chavez neighborhood of Catia in Caracas last week, seizing 120 tons of rice along with coffee and powdered milk that officials said was to be sold above regulated prices.
“The battle for food is a matter of national security,” said a red-shirted official from the Food Ministry, resting his arm on a pallet laden with bags of coffee.
It is also the latest issue to divide the Latin American country where Chavez has nationalized a wide swathe of the economy, he says to reverse years of exploitation of the poor.
CNBC (Reuters) article continues here.
Chavez orders takeover of iron-makers
BusinessWeek, “Venezuela’s Chavez orders takeover of iron-makers”
President Hugo Chavez announced Saturday the expropriation of a group of iron, aluminum and transportation companies in Venezuela’s mining region.
Among the expropriated companies is Materiales Siderurgicos, or Matesi, which is the Venezuelan subsidiary of Luxembourg-based steel maker Tenaris SA.
Venezuela’s socialist president said in a televised that his government was going to take over Matesi because “we couldn’t reach an amicable and reasonable settlement with the owners.
BusinessWeek article continues here.
Chavez hires 200 people to manage his Twitter account
Google News (AP), “Chavez rockets to No. 1 on Twitter in Venezuela”
by Christopher Toothaker
He urged supporters to join as well, calling Twitter “a weapon that also needs to be used by the revolution.”
Since then, Chavez says, he has been overwhelmed by nearly 54,000 messages from supporters, critics and people writing to ask for help with a problem or lodge a complaint. On Thursday, he announced that a new team of 200 aides would help him manage the stream.
“I’m creating a team due to the avalanche of requests, and some grievances,” he said.
Opposition lawmaker Juan Jose Molina said he was not surprised by Chavez’s ability to attract a crowd in cyberspace, but he thinks the president should spend less time tweeting and more time working to reduce soaring inflation and violent crime.
Google News (AP) article continues here.
Venezuela annual inflation rate hits 30 percent
My Way News (AP), “Venezuela annual inflation rate hits 30 percent”
Venezuela’s annual inflation rate has surpassed 30 percent after consumer prices surged in April.
The Central Bank and National Statistics Institute on Friday reported a 5.2 percent increase in consumer prices during April, driving up the annual rate to 30.4 percent.
President Hugo Chavez’s government has been struggling against the highest inflation rate in Latin America and a weakening economy in general.
My Way News (AP) article continues here.
Obama: “No company is going to make investments for a public good.”
What about all the jobs and products companies create, aren’t those goods for the public?
Rush Limbaugh, ““No Company is Going to Make Investments for a Public Good””
OBAMA: I don’t want government any more than is necessary, but there’s some things that Bob or any CEO can’t invest in. Bob’s not going to build the roads to get to Celgard. No company is going to make investments for a public good.
RUSH: No company is going to make investments for a public good. Good Lord. I don’t think I even know what vitriol is until I heard that. No company is going to make investments for the public good? What the hell do they do? Bob’s not going to make investments for the public good. Bob here, the CEO at Celgard, Bob’s not going to build the roads to get to Celgard. I’ll bet Bob had to build a whole bunch of roads or parking lots, and I’ll bet Bob had to go through a whole bunch of permit processes with the local government there to get permission to do every bit of building he had to do. Does the government build every road to every business? Obama’s slipping up here, folks. He’s getting off message here. The Democrats are getting off message. Yesterday we had all those sound bites of the Democrats from Baucus to Howard Dean to any number of Democrats saying that the health bill was really about redistribution, was really about the maldistribution of income and the health care bill. That’s off message. That brings back Joe the Plumber. They don’t want that. I mean their message is health insurance for all Americans, medical coverage for all Americans, no, no, no, it’s not about that. It’s about redistributing wealth, which we’ve all known on this side of the aisle. Play this again. I don’t want government any more than is necessary. That’s a lie. He wants government to be doing everything.
Rush Limbaugh article continues here.
Castro applauds Obama for socializing health care
The Washington Post, “Cuban leader applauds US health-care reform bill”
by Paul Haven
It perhaps was not the endorsement President Barack Obama and the Democrats in Congress were looking for.
Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro on Thursday declared passage of American health care reform “a miracle” and a major victory for Obama’s presidency, but couldn’t help chide the United States for taking so long to enact what communist Cuba achieved decades ago.
“We consider health reform to have been an important battle and a success of his (Obama’s) government,” Castro wrote in an essay published in state media, adding that it would strengthen the president’s hand against lobbyists and “mercenaries.”
The Washington Post article continues here.